Southwest resident volunteers in Peru

Special to VIEWPeru Rocks trekkers hold a chain of prayer flags in front the ancient ruins of Manchu Picchu. Advertisement

Four months ago, Derrick Tabbish probably wouldn't have believed you if you told him that before the year's end, he'd rest at the top of Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains after a four-day hike.

That's where Tabbish stood firmly two weeks ago as part of a 10-day trek through Peru to raise money to battle cancer in the South American country. Tabbish, a 23-year-old Southern Highlands resident, joined 65 musicians, cancer survivors and supporters for the campaign Peru Rocks, organized by Denver-based nonprofit Love Hope and Strength Foundation.

Tabbish is hiking in place of his uncle, Otto Schutt of San Francisco, who died of colon cancer in May. Schutt was diagnosed a year ago, at 40 years old, with progressive cancer. From his hospital bed, he read about the Love Hope and Strength Foundation and set a goal to recover in time to hike in the Peru Rocks fundraiser.

Schutt told his friend Lee Williams, "No matter what happens, you're going to carry me up that mountain."

So that's what Williams and Tabbish did. In the name of Schutt, the two hiked the four-day, 30-mile trek through the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. They scattered Schutt's ashes at the top of the mountain.

"I'm happy to be here to take his ashes up and let him be up there forever," Tabbish said on a call from Peru.

The musicians on the campaign performed in small villages each night and ended the journey with a large benefit concert. Tabbish and the team of trekkers also visited cancer patients at Peru's largest cancer care center.

The money raised through the concerts and from trekkers' donations will help launch a Love Hope and Strength Foundation in Peru. The Peru-based foundation will hold walk-a-thons, concerts, fashion shows and other events to raise money to fight cancer and raise awareness. Proceeds also paid for an ambulance that will transport local doctors and nurses to test and treat people for cancer in rural Peru.

Love Hope and Strength Foundation director Shannon Foley said the lack of cancer education is the foundation's No. 1 concern in Peru.

"We want to make sure people know how to prevent cancer and how important early detection is," she said. "This is just the beginning for this country."

The Love Hope and Strength Foundation was started in 2006 by Mike Peters, lead singer of Welsh rock and roll band The Alarm. The foundation's first fundraising campaign, Everest Rocks, raised more than $200,000 last summer. The donations bought two radiation machines for a cancer care center in Nepal. For more information about Peru Rocks, visit www.perurocks.org.

Christy Kruzick, the foundation's public relations manager in Denver, said she joined the foundation for the chance to take the fight against cancer overseas.

"Both my grandparents were treated with chemotherapy and survived, but in Peru, they don't have the equipment to even screen people for cancer," Kruzick said. "This is a way to go into a country that's not as fortunate as the U.S. and give them the tools to fight cancer."

Contact Southeast and Southwest View reporter Danielle Nadler at dnadler@viewnews.com or 224-5524.